FARMINGTON – Four legislators joined the state’s financial service chief at a Western Maine Legislative Caucus breakfast held today, to try and shine some light on the federal stimulus money coming into the state.
Commissioner Ryan Low of the Department of Administration and Financial Services opened up with an introduction of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $787 billion of expenditures aiming at creating jobs and helping the economy recover, and how Maine was expecting to use its share of the funds. Sen. Walter Gooley (R – Farmington), Rep. Thomas Saviello (U – Wilton), Rep. Lance Harvell (R – Farmington) and Sen. John Nutting (D – Leeds) filled out the rest of the panel.
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Low described the stimulus package and associated application process as “complex” and “difficult,” noting that the new federal administration was attempting to implement an enormous program with several vacancies still existing at the department level. Low said that there were more than 100 funding streams in the ARRA, which made determining exactly when and how funds would be received challenging.
“There’s no roadmap,” he said.
However, Maine is expected to receive more than $1 billion in ARRA money. Those funds, Low said, would be segregated from locally-raised money for the purposes of accurate tracking and transparent reporting. The state’s website, seen here, will be used to assist the public in tracking the funds.
Saviello gave an overview of the aspects of ARRA funds which could affect the local area. This includes $45 million earmarked for hospitals, with the legislature to consider another payment of $57 million at a later date. That money would go toward helping pay off the MaineCare debt which is owed to medical facilities by the state.
Another $158 million is being made available for education, with $129 million going to K-12 districts and the remainder going toward assisting secondary schools. That money is being used to offset a curtailment order issued by the governor late last year, as well as helping districts, many of whom lost large amounts of state subsidy, this year. Another $58 million will be utilized through Pell Grants,
Nutting noted a dangerous trend he had been seeing recently, where some school districts were beginning to add back in positions they had originally planned to eliminate, hoping to fund them with stimulus money. However, that money will not last longer than two years.
“There will be a cliff,” he said. Both MSAD 9 and MSAD 58 board directors and administrators had made similar statements as both districts work through their own budgets.
Transportation systems receive a large chunk of the federal money coming into the state; $162 million according to Gooley. $130 million of that is going into road and bridge work, $13 million in supporting transit system expansion and $18 million into aviation.
“The big project is the work on I-295, between Gardiner and Brunswick,” Gooley said, saying that roughly $35 million would be spent on that refurbishment.
Several state and federal roads will benefit from ARRA. However, Gooley noted that many local projects weren’t far enough along in the planning process to receive funding.
“The 100-day turnaround became a problem for many of these projects,” Gooley said.
While little money would flow to community projects, as both Gooley and Saviello noted, Nutting pointed to several projects which had been bumped to the top of the queue thanks to the federal money, including the Route 4 work taking place between Jay and Livermore Falls this year.
Harvell addressed what he saw as potential problems with the ARRA. He noted the program was based off of a Keynesian economic theory which had been first used in this country as part of the New Deal in the 1930s. At that time, Harvell said, 90 percent of the country had no access to electricity and dirt roads, if any. This provided a clear opportunity for investment; the government would spend money to stimulate an economy mired in the Great Depression and then, when the economy recovered, the infrastructure improvements would remain.
“Now, on the other hand,” Harvell said, “the goals aren’t as obvious. We should use [the stimulus money] on one-time spending as much as possible.”
Nutting hoped that consideration would also be given in Maine to natural resource-based industries, such as agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, which did not benefit from ARRA. These, he noted, were among the industries which showed the highest return after investment.
Along a similar vein, Nutting presented a certificate expressing a legislative sentiment to Tanya Swain, the director of Western Mountains Alliance, for her work promoting locally-grown food. This most recently includes the online farmer’s market, open on weekends, which can be found here.
Western Maine Legislative Caucus forums include a free breakfast and are sponsored by the Western Mountains Alliance, University of Maine Farmington, Franklin Community Health Network, Greater Franklin Development Corporation, Mission at the Eastward, Western Maine Community Action Program, and MSAD9. All caucuses are taped courtesy of Mount Blue TV and can be ordered through the station by calling 778-8146.
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Give it back! It’s not worth being held over a barrel by the federal government.
Hutch is right. Let’s give it back – all of it! We can’t have the despicable federal government holding us OVER a barrel. Much better to be stuffed INTO the barrel (( and through the bunghole at that!) by the lawless hustlers who did so much to lead so many to truly believe that the path to happiness and plenty forever is to run personal and institutional debt to a point way beyond the outer limits of sanity! Rather then admit that ours or anyone’s market system has its limits, that it needs to be regulated and supplemented by public policy, let’s cut out the role of representative democratic government (just when we have gained a chance to rescue it from the pirates of Wall Street) which is the logical choice for attempting some lasting remedies to the ills that beset us. Let’s just ignore the fact that federal funds sent into Maine exceed Maine monies sent in the other direction. Let’s demand an end to federal contracts with Bath Ironworks, Pratt and Whitney, machine gun manufacturers in Saco. Let’s reject federal highway funds, educational funds at all levels, medicaid and the rest. Let Mainers who receive them return their social security checks, their medicare cards, their veterans benefits. After all, there is no greater proof of moral decrepitude than to accept our share of national-level programs developed by our democratically elected federal government. We may be ignorant of history and caught in a time warp from some imagined bygone era, but, by gorry at least we’re not morally decrepit!
If our federal government won’t cease dangling us over this barrel, this fiery furnace, maybe we should threaten to rip up Maine’s length of I-95 and demolish the eastern half of the Piscataqua River Bridge. If that doesn’t work, there’s always secession. Unlike the crackers of 148 years ago, we might succeed. I can’t imagine too many US citizens getting worked up about it – no big loss to them. We would still be able to continue our role as a resource colony for big capital from beyond our frontiers.
Besides, there is the possibility that Irving Ltd. (otherwise known as New Brunswick), would probably be happy to ensure our survival, should going it alone prove to be a bad idea. Irving has already purchased much of the acreage Canadians lost in the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and they have embassies known as Blue Canoes everywhere in the PIne Tree State. Acquiring a penniless but resource-rich Province of Maine would be easy and probably welcome throughout. Since so many of us have family roots throughout the maritimes, we would probably get a better deal as a colony than we ever got from Massachusetts – with basic health care thrown in!.
For now, though, we must do what we can to hold the federal monster at bay – Backward and Downward, fellow Mainers!